Apps for an Evening of Halloween Fun

With Halloween a week away, costumes are in their final stages of planning and holiday decorations are in full display across neighborhoods. But have you made preparations for any of All Hallows' Eve festivities? As one would suspect, there are plenty of apps to plan optimal trick or treating routes, plan your costume party, or organize any other fun Halloween activity this weekend or next week...

iOS

Left: HauntFinder - Right: Zello Walkie Talkie

HauntFinderGet into the spirit of the occasion and look for local haunts in your area. Hauntfinder creates a list of the horror houses, spooky mazes, asylums, forests and more nearest you. The wide variety of venues listed is convenient, and finding one that meets your needs, whether it's for children or a group of adults, is easy enough. $3

Zello Walkie TalkieHaving phones is a great way to keep in contact, but dialing and calling can be costly and inefficient. Zello Walkie Talkie does exactly as the name implies — speaks directly to other handsets with the same free app with the touch of a button. If you're trick or treating in a big group with other families, or just want to stay in contact, it's an effective app to have. Best of all, it works cross platform between Android and iOS. FreeAvailable for Android

Android

Left: Life360 Family Locator - Right: SpecTrek

Life360 Family LocatorKeep tabs on your family's whereabouts with this popular family tracking app. Life360 tracks each family member's handset's whereabouts and has a place where everyone can update with messages. It also alerts to the closest safe zones and potential threats in the area, and has the ability to work with traditional cell phones. FreeAlso available for iOS

SpecTrekOn the evening where the spirits come out to play, it's only appropriate to seek them out with your smartphone. Using augmented reality and GPS, SpecTrek is a game where you seek out (virtual) specters with your Android (or iOS) handset's camera. The app records scores, achievements and gives titles to the highest scorers. $3Also available for iOS

Windows Phone 7

Left: Bingle Maps - Right: Flashlight-X

Bingle MapsBingle Maps offers a range of navigational features using Bing and Google maps (hence the name Bingle). You can create multiple itineraries so you can return to drop off your payload and get back out there for seconds or thirds. After you've made your trick or treat routes, you can save them to your Dropbox account for safekeeping. FreeEquivalent for iOS/Android

Flashlight-XDon't get lost in the dark — in a tight situation a flashlight can help you out of a jam. Since our phones are magnetically glued to our sides, Flashlight-X for Windows Phone will be there too. As soon as you open the app, your handset's LED will stay on, and can also flash SOS in morse code with a few quick taps. Free